Arch Linux

speciousfool

Member

Registered: 2009-05-07

Posts: 3

two ntpd proccesses

I managed to get openntpd set up on my computer:

DAEMONS=(syslog-ng network netfs crond sshd alsa acpid openntpd hal fam !snd_pcsp)

What is confusing me now is that it seems there are two processes running:

$ ps -ef | grep ntpd
ntp       1606     1  0 16:00 ?        00:00:00 /usr/sbin/ntpd -s
root      1612     1  0 16:00 ?        00:00:00 /usr/sbin/ntpd -s

Is this correct? Any idea why the second ntpd might be launching?

MadTux

Member

Registered: 2009-09-20

Posts: 553

Re: two ntpd proccesses

I think that is correct. Note that these processes run under different user accounts. I could image that there is one part to communicate with the ntp servers in the outside world and the other part is responsible for actually setting the time. It would probably be a security risk to run everything as root.

ReaphSharc

Member

From: the Netherlands

Registered: 2007-11-05

Posts: 138

Website

Re: two ntpd proccesses

$ ps -ef | grep ntp
ntp       1877     1  0 08:09 ?        00:00:00 /usr/sbin/ntpd -s
root      1878     1  0 08:09 ?        00:00:00 /usr/sbin/ntpd -s

Not sure why there are two processes, but it's standard behaviour for openntp in Arch.

By the way "!snd_pcsp" needs to go into your MODULES section (of rc.conf), not DAEMONS (it's not a daemon, and you won't find it in /etc/rc.d/).

Last edited by ReaphSharc (2009-11-18 08:31:31)

---

Do you want a Bubble Icon? Feel free to submit your requests or personal creations to be included in future releases.
I'm 100% Linux!

fukawi2

Ex-Administratorino

From: .vic.au

Registered: 2007-09-28

Posts: 6,222

Website

Re: two ntpd proccesses

I think that is correct. Note that these processes run under different user accounts. I could image that there is one part to communicate with the ntp servers in the outside world and the other part is responsible for actually setting the time. It would probably be a security risk to run everything as root.

All correct. Two processes is normal behaviour.

---

Are you familiar with our Forum Rules, and How To Ask Questions The Smart Way?

BlueHackers // fscanary // resticctl

ataraxia

Member

From: Pittsburgh

Registered: 2007-05-06

Posts: 1,553

Re: two ntpd proccesses

This concept is called "privilege separation" (or "privsep" for short) and it's common in network-listening software. Look at sshd (from the same upstream devs) the next time you log into a machine remotely and you'll see it do the same thing for each user session.